Between HeVan and Hell (13 page)

“There’s no way you can completely
strip your identity from a place when you leave in a hurry. So if
they come and strip it down to the floorboards, we’ll have one less
thing to worry about. Do you have any boxes? We can start with your
desks, any personal papers, etc. You can pack your clothes in any
suitcases you already have,” said Suzanna.

“Okay, I get what you’re saying,”
answered Marta.

The two of them got to work. A few
minutes later, Rune came up and asked Suzanna to sit with the
women; he didn’t want them left alone in the alley. He would shift
furniture for Marta as needed. When Suzanna got downstairs, she saw
that Rune had loaded all the things that the women had managed to
pile up near the back door. As she stepped outside, she saw a
mid-sized truck coming down the alley. She immediately hopped into
the van and pulled it forward so they would have access to the back
door.

“You two going to be alright here for
a few minutes more?” she asked her mother and newly-found
aunt.

They both just smiled and waved her
off, content to continue exchanging stories about their childhood.
Gilda had given her a knowing look. She had realized her sister’s
condition.

Suzanna then walked back to greet the
movers. Rune and Marta had heard the truck also and had come to the
back door. Two large barrel-chested men with curly red hair and
beards climbed down from the cab, along with an average-sized
woman. Two more men came around from the back; they’d obviously
been riding inside the truck. The men were all close enough in size
and looks that she knew they were brothers. They’d all worn jeans
and plain white T-shirts and she was glad none of them wore a
uniform or T-shirt advertising their business; Miranda had passed
the word.

The driver, who was about six foot
six, stepped forward with his hand outstretched to Rune. “Hi, I’m
Mike Mackey of Mackey Moving and Storage. I hear you might need a
little help.”

Suzanna gestured to the doorway.
“Let’s take this conversation inside. I don’t want the merchants
next door to overhear anything,” she said in a low
voice.

The merchants had snooped a little,
but gone away when they weren’t given any information. One older
lady had gone straight to Gilda and Carol, exclaiming how wonderful
it was that the two sisters had found each other. She and Gilda
exchanged a look; she would tell the neighbors that Gilda was
closing shop after the robbery scare and going to live with her
baby sister for a while. She finally went away, when her husband
called her back into their shop. Suzanna was worried that if she
heard the truck, she might pop back out again.

“Did Miranda tell you what this
situation is all about?” asked Suzanna.

“Yeah, she said the owner here had a
run-in with some mafia type and would be testifying against him,”
said Mike.

“That’s correct; just this afternoon,
in fact. The police officers that arrived on scene are delaying
entering the reports in the system until after nine p.m. tonight.
So we have a brief window of time to remove all traces of Gilda and
her granddaughter from these premises.

“These guys will try to come here to
get her. When they see she’s not here, they’ll search for any trace
of her. They’ll look for relatives, friends, anyone who can give
them a lead. And that would then put all those people in danger,
too. So we need to clear this place, make sure there isn’t anything
left to point them in our direction,” concluded Suzanna.

“You want we should take everything
down here, too?” asked Mike.

“Yes, if you can. They will most
likely have to move their business.”

Rune offered to help and so did Marta.
So Suzanna went back to the van with the two older ladies while
Marta and Mrs. Mackey packed and the five men hauled out the
furniture. By seven thirty, the moving van was loaded and on its
way. Suzanna had asked them if they were willing to drive it out to
DeKalb instead of storing it, as she handed Mike the two thousand
dollars she’d promised. Mike said that would be fine and Suzanna
gave him the address and directions. As he was getting in the
truck, she thought of something and called out to him.

“Hey, Mike? Do you have Heidi’s stuff
in a trailer or in your warehouse?” she asked.

“We put it in a portable pod in the
warehouse yard. That way no one will even see the stuff to wonder
about it. As far as they know, the pod in the yard is
empty.”

“That’s great. We’re going to be
moving Heidi tonight to the same place as we’re stashing Gilda.
They can be company for each other and it’ll be nice to have
someone who understands the need for secrecy nearby. Do you
understand?” at his nod, she continued, “Well, if you can drop off
her pod in DeKalb too, that will be great. We’ve got kind of an
underground railroad going for women who need to disappear. When
you get to DeKalb, Addie will give you more information if you’re
interested in helping out,” she concluded.

“My aunt was a battered wife. She kept
it to herself and hid the bruises because she was so ashamed. Her
bastard husband killed her when I was still in high school. He’s
still in prison. Tore up my mom. She never recovered, as my aunt
was her twin. Tell Heidi she’ll get her stuff. We’re in,” he said.
He swung up into the cab, reached over to give his wife a hug and a
kiss then drove away.

After the moving truck drove away,
Suzanna told Rune she wanted to make a last pass through the
premises. She concentrated on her own gift, the one that showed her
where to find things she needed to find.

She started in the shop without
turning on the lights; the summer sun was still coming in the front
of the shop well enough to see. The Mackeys had stripped the room
bare. The linoleum floor was old, but it was clean and waxed. Just
a few scuffmarks marred its surface. She took a close look at the
walls and knew there was nothing there to find.

She repeated the procedure in the back
and found a small hidey-hole under a floorboard. Inside was a
velvet pouch. She pulled it out and then continued to look. Finding
nothing else, she proceeded upstairs.

Once again, everything was gone except
for the sheers hanging in the windows. The living room, kitchen,
and bathrooms were all bare, but she went through every drawer and
cabinet anyway, pulling each drawer out all the way and looking
behind and underneath.

She found an envelope behind the
drawer in the bathroom, added it to the case under her arm and kept
looking, jacking up her powers again. In the smaller bedroom, there
wasn’t anything to find. In the larger bedroom, she felt pulled to
the closet.

She saw a crack in the wall above the
closet shelf. She debated calling Rune and checking the solidity of
the shelves built in on the right side, and decided she could do it
herself. She put the velvet case on the floor, along with the
envelope. Then she turned to the closet, and using the overhead
shelf as a brace, climbed up the side and pulled herself up onto
the top wide shelf. She reached over and got her fingernails under
the edge of the crack and pulled. A small space appeared between
the joists. She pulled out a metal box and then put back the piece
of drywall. Turning to make sure she wouldn’t hit her head when she
hopped down, she spotted another envelope taped to the wall over
the closet door. Bracing one foot on the doorframe, she reached
over and pulled it down.

Finally, she jumped down and then
reached up to grab the box and the envelope. Picking up the velvet
pouch and the other envelope, she was sure she’d found everything,
so she went downstairs and left.

They locked the back door and drove
away by eight p.m. They had enough time to swing by the police
station and sign off on the report and have evidence photos taken
before they headed back to DeKalb.

“What do you guys say we stop for some
Chicago, deep, dish pizza? I’m sure everyone’s hungry. It’ll be a
celebration,” said Suzanna, helping Gilda into the van in the
police station parking lot. “I don’t know about the rest of you,
but I’m starved.” Everyone thought it was a great idea. Suzanna
also knew that if their stomachs were full, the ladies would doze
off on the ride home. Rune called Arjun and filled him in on the
plan. The pod wasn’t expected until two or three in the morning so
they had plenty of time.

Grace, Jalen and Jett walked through
the doors of Hell a little before ten o’clock that night. The crowd
was happy and easy going, mostly made up of people that had eaten
dinner out or seen a show. Now they wanted to take a chance, roll
the dice, and see what the night would bring. The serious gamblers
were sprinkled here and there. They would stay late, sign IOU’s,
and lose everything they had, just like those young scions of the
nobility in times gone by in the Hells of England that this club
was named for.

A cocktail waitress walked by wearing
a red bustier, a red micro-mini with black stockings and garters
showing below the hem, the devil tail and horns completing her
outfit, and ruining the ambiance.

Grace had only been on the job for
three days. As part of her undercover persona, she’d let part of
her mind see this as her job and what she would want to change if
she were really a full-time employee of this casino. So tonight she
wore her hair in an elegant chignon—no horns, just a small red
hairpin shaped like a pitchfork. A long, floor-length red silk
dress was cut on the bias like the glamour gowns of the thirties.
It hugged her body and showed every curve as she glided across the
carpet in comfortable two-inch red heels. The pattern of the dress
was subtle, a red on red design of pitchforks and roses.

As they walked through, she nodded
hello to several of her co-workers. Sharon, over at the craps
table, mouthed the word ‘hot’ with a tilt of her head. Grace gave
her a grin and put her hands around both men’s elbows. Sharon was
man-hungry and would want to be introduced to the brother of her
fiancé, and Grace was flaunting them both.

They were headed to the Lounge when
Jett gave her the signal that Kadyrov was approaching from the
left. She waited a beat and then stopped, pulling Jalen around to
face her when he took a step past.

“Come on, honey, let me check you over
one more time. I don’t want you looking like a slob in front of my
boss,” she said.

“I know you like this new job, babe,
but why do I have to be all spit and polish?” asked
Jalen.

“There’s an unwritten rule that on the
night you ask a woman to marry you and she says yes, you do
everything she asks. That way she won’t change her mind and say
no.”

She could hear Jett chuckling behind
her. “She’s got you there, bro.”

Jalen gave her a pained look and said,
“I’m standing here, aren’t I? Do I get credit for that, at
least?”

“Yes, you do,” she answered. She was
just brushing her hands over his shoulders, throwing dust into
Kadyrov’s eyes, when Kadyrov reached them.

“Ah, Grace, you have come as you
promised. And this is your young man?” he asked, as he stood there
blinking.

“Mr. Kadyrov, are you alright? Do you
have something in your eye?” Grace asked.

“You will have to excuse me…” he
started to turn and she lightly stopped him with a hand on his
arm.

“Now, don’t rub it. You’ll only make
it worse.” Spotting a cocktail waitress walking by, she spoke up as
she guided him over to a chair. “Margie, bring me a glass of water,
will ya hon?”

“Sure thing, Grace,” Margie said as
she hurried away.

Jalen and Jett stepped back so they
weren’t crowding Grace. Mr. Kadyrov’s men were all around and they
wanted to be seen as separate from the incident. Grace got him
seated and asked, “Which eye is it?”

He lifted his hand and pointed to his
right eye. She took his face in both her hands and looked into his
eye. “I can see the speck; it’s in the corner. May I borrow your
handkerchief, Mr. Kadyrov?”

He pulled it out with his other hand
and waved it at her just as Margie came up with a glass of water on
a tray.

“Thanks, Margie,” said
Grace.

Then she dipped the corner of the
handkerchief into the water and used it to pull out the speck. She
put both her hands on his face again and stared into his eyes,
looking for more dirt. “I don’t see anything else. Blink a few
times. Are you better now?” she asked as she stepped back to stand
by Jalen and Jett.

“Yes, my dear, though I’m afraid I’m a
bit damp. Thank you for your help. Please introduce me to these two
men,” he said with a warm smile as he used the dry portion of his
handkerchief to mop up the damp spots on his face.

Gesturing to her right, Grace
answered, “This is my fiancé, Jalen Contadina.”

“How do you do, Sir? I apologize if a
speck of dust from my jacket hurt you. Grace was determined that I
look fit to be seen,” said Jalen, holding out his hand.

“I asked Grace to bring you by. I
think of all my employees as mine, you see. And Grace is without
parents of her own, so I take a paternal interest in her. And this
is your brother?” he asked, having shaken Jalen’s hand he turned to
give Jett a perusal.